Welcome to the tower

Rohan and Welli then headed for the shelter, and after talking about what had happened, they went to sleep.

The next day, when it was time to go into the forest, Rohan noticed that the men were no longer around, and he thought, 'Peace at last'. He then headed into the forest and began to collect the runes he found along the way.

Some time passed, and Rohan said, "I think that's enough for today," as he looked at the runes he had picked up.

Having gone so long without being able to pick up any runes, Rohan made an extra effort. He went much deeper into the forest than he usually did. Rohan managed to find a total of eighteen white runes. Something he never imagined he would achieve.

He said, "I didn't expect to find so many runes by going a little deeper into the forest. It seems that with most people focusing on the green and blue runes, hardly anyone comes here."

"Well, now I need to find my way back. I made sure to walk in a straight line from the gate to here, going out of my way only to pick up the runes but always leaving a mark where I was so I could get back to the exact spot. If all goes well, I shouldn't have any trouble getting back."

Rohan began to make his way back, and to help him, since he was very deep in the forest, he took one of the white runes he had found and began to use it as a flashlight.

This was not a common thing to do. After all, the light emitted by the runes is very weak, so, for example, if he were to pass by a white rune or near a slightly more hidden mountain with a green rune, he wouldn't be able to see them because of the light emitted by his white rune.

He then started back towards the city gate, trying to keep going straight so as not to stray from the path he had taken when he suddenly realized something. The light coming from his rune seemed to be weaker than before.

He then thought, 'What's going on? As far as I know, the light from the runes wasn't supposed to run out. After all, I've used them like this other times since I arrived here and I've never had a problem.

Soon after this, the brightness of the rune began to diminish little by little, to the point where it went out completely, leaving Rohan in the dark of the forest.

He then took another white rune and used it to analyze the rune that had lost its light. After observing it for a while, he didn't see anything strange about it and thought, 'Did I get a faulty rune? Well, I don't know what happened, but I'd better focus on getting back to town. Once there, I'll ask one of the guards what might have happened."

Rohan walked on towards the city, and after a while, he noticed that the light from the new rune in his hand also seemed to be getting dim.

He said, "What's happening? This can't be normal. Could it have something to do with the fact that I picked up these runes in a deeper part of the forest?"

He stopped to observe the rune for a while and noticed something strange. The light was indeed getting weaker as time went by, but what he also found weird was that the light seemed to be going in a specific direction.

Rohan said, "Hm? Why is the light going in that direction? Could it have something to do with it getting weaker?"

He sat in thoughtful silence for a while, then said, "Well, it can't hurt to check what's causing it. In the worst case, I'll have to wait until dawn to go back to the shelter, but with the number of runes I found today, I might even be able to stay out of the forest tomorrow.

Rohan started heading in the direction his rune's light was going. Still, after a while, just like the other rune, its light also went out completely, so he had to pick up another rune.

He then made his way with the new rune in hand, but after a while, it, too, went out much more quickly than the previous one.

Rohan had a bad feeling about this but decided to carry on.

...

A long time passed, and Rohan had to change his rune again.

He then said, "I'm already on the tenth rune. I hope that whatever is causing this is something incredible because I don't know if the lightless runes still have any value."

He kept going in the direction the light was going. After using three more runes, thus reaching his thirteenth rune, he finally saw something different happen.

The rune in his hand was still glowing brightly when suddenly, the light from it completely detached itself from the body of the rune and quickly went towards the ground, disappearing.

Rohan was distracted by this and didn't follow the light to where it disappeared.

He then said, "Damn! I didn't see where the light went."

He took another rune in his hand, but as soon as he picked it up, the light from the rune quickly detached itself from his body and went rapidly toward the ground.

This time, Rohan managed to follow it and went to the point where the light had disappeared, but when he got there, he realized something and said, "Where did the light go? I can't see anything here."

As he said this, Rohan began to look around, startled, and thought, 'Now that I've stopped to take a good look, I can't see anything. I know the forest gets very dark at night, but I've never seen it this dark before. I literally can't see anything.

He then picked up another rune, and the same thing that happened with the previous rune repeated itself, with the light coming entirely out of the body of the rune and heading towards the ground right in front of him. Still, even though he was literally in front of where the light from the rune disappeared, Rohan couldn't see what was causing it.

He said, "Looks like the light from one rune isn't enough," and then thought about his last three runes that still had light.

"Well, I've used up so many runes to get here. There's no point in being stingy now."

He knelt on the ground to get as close as possible to the place where the light was disappearing and took the three runes he had left in his hand. 

Shortly after he did this, the same thing happened, with the light coming out of the bodies of the runes and heading towards the ground. Still, this time, since there was light of three runes and Rohan was so close, he was able to see what was sucking in the light briefly.

The object had the same shape as the runes he held in his hand, but it was completely black, to the point that if it wasn't for the light of the runes, it would have been impossible to see.

Rohan then quickly stretched out his hand and grabbed it. He felt the same sensation as when he held the other runes and then said, "What is this object? Could it be ... a black rune?!"

He looked at his hand to analyze the object but realized that he could no longer see his hand.

Rohan then said, "What's going on?! Where is my hand?!"

He started trying to move his hand and realized that he was still feeling it. This made him calm down and think, 'This object seems to be sucking in all the light around it. I just can't see my hand. It hasn't disappeared. Could it be that if I keep it in my bag, it will continue to suck in the light around it?'

Rohan began to try to put the object away in the bag where he kept the runes he found, but he was having trouble because he couldn't see what he was doing. After trying unsuccessfully for some time, he came up with the idea of using his body as a guide.

He placed the hand holding the supposed black rune against his body and then began to drag it down to his waist, where his bag was. He opened the bag with a little difficulty and then put the supposed black rune inside.

As he did so, he noticed that his surroundings became easier to see and thought, 'Looks like it's working.'

He then closed the bag with difficulty, which meant that his surroundings were still dark, but dark in the same way as the rest of the forest, not the complete darkness he had been in before.